ACTION IN CHANNEL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 224, 19 June 1944, Page 5

ACTION IN CHANNEL

New Zealander Sees Nazi Destroyers Worsted (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright) (Special Correspondent.) LONDON, June 16. . Able Seaman S. B. Harrison, Waimate, who has been in action against the Japanese in H.M.S. Leander off the Solomons and against a submarine off Suva while serving in the Monow.ai, is now on loan to the Royal Navy. He has been in action against the Germans off Ushant, an island off the north coast of France. He was loader of a 4in. gun in the destroyer H.MJS. Tartar, and this is what happened. Harrison says: “We were in a flotilla with the job of preventing the Germans attempting to interrupt the flow of men and supplies to Normandy. It was reported that German destroyers were moving up off Ushant, and our skipper told us we were going to intercept them. We stood to action stations some time after midnight. There were low clouds and bad visibility. Suddenly an order was given to train all guns in a certain direction. Then another order, ‘Open fire.’ Our gun fired star-shells for a start. They lit up the horizon and then we saw a group of German destroyers about 4000 yards away—practically point-blank range. , . , T “Then a shooting match started. I was so busy I had not much time to spare to see what was going on, but soon one German ship caught tire. Evidently the magazine was hit, for she began to spout what looked like giant sparks, till she resembled a stationary Catherine wheel. Another German ship was driven ashore and beached herself. We heard afterward that she was bombed by the R.A.F. It was quite a good scrap. I did not know how long it went on, but dawn was just breaking as it ended. “Just before the action began I replaced another man on the gun, and he was sent to work the starboard searchlight. It shook me a bit when I learnt subsequently that he, had been killed outright. A German aircraft, evidently a reconnaissance machine, flew over Inter, but our guns opened up and it disappeared.” . Lieutenant. W. Scott-Wilson, R.N.Z. N.V.R., Auckland, is serving in the destroyer H.M.S, Danae, which . the Admiralty reports among the ships bombarding the enemy const. It is reported that E-boats are among the most dangerous weapons used by the Germans against the vast amount of shipping plying between England mid Normandy. They work from cither Cherbourg or Le Havre.

The Royal Navy's reply is constant patrols by destroyers, in addition to the close escort given every convoy, and also a close blockade of E-boiit bases by light coastal forces all night, with the object either of preventing them leaving harbour or inflicting loss and damage when they put to sea.